VIENNA (Sputnik) – The country’s two leading coalition partners – the Social Democrats (SPO) and the Austrian People’s Party (OVP) – have seen their support wane against the backdrop of Europe’s refugee crisis.
Austria serves as a transit country for thousands of migrants fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa in search of refuge in Germany and Western Europe. The Austrian state government's official elections website names immigration and associated topics among the top campaign issues.
The FPO, which seeks greater immigration control, won a record 31 percent of the vote to the state parliament on September 27, surpassing the SPO and becoming the second largest party.
TEST FOR THE GOVERNMENT
Vienna has been ruled by SPO veteran Michael Haupl, whose health concerns have recently become the subject of speculation, over the past 21 years.
The latest opinion polling among voters see FPO close behind the SPO at 35 percent to 37.5 percent of support. At the last municipal elections in 2010, the SPO received 44.2 percent of the votes and the FPO – 27 percent.
Support for the Greens has stayed at 12.2 percent, while the OVP has dipped from 13.3 percent five years ago down to 10 percent.
COALITION PROSPECTS
Austrian media claim liberal and centrist parties have been able to mobilize over the past weeks to fend off the onset of right-wing forces. A three-way coalition of either SPO-Greens-NEOS or SPO-OVP-NEOS is said to form if the two leading parties do not win more than 50 percent of the votes combined.
Whether NEOS – The New Austria, a pro-European liberal party formed in 2012, is able to pass a 5-percent threshold to get into city parliament is up for debate.
Ballots are set to open at 7:00 a.m. local time (05:00 GMT) and close at 15:00 GMT, with official results expected on Sunday evening.
FPO and its leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, are staunch opponents of the European Union's anti-Russia sanctions and call for greater cooperation with Moscow.
